Picking on IT

I started composing a similar message to my manager today. I neither like nor dislike IT. In this case however, IT’s lack of initiative made me realize I am resentful of IT’s lack of initiative, considering the alternative is so cheap. It all started when IT Guy sent this around the Department (paraphrased and only slightly altered from a neutral disposition):

<Infrastructure Guy>: Do you think you could delete some stuff? The network is really full up.

This is the umpteenth time my department has been asked the same question. I have nothing against Infrastructure Guy, but with cheap (i.e., free) technology (go ahead, ask me) and 5 extra minutes I would have asked this instead:

<Me>: You have 30 GB of text files in one folder tree that could probably compact to less than 5 GB, saving over 25 GB of disk space. That would reduce your department’s usage by 10%. Do you need these files online or can we zip them?

So let’s compare: In IT guy’s scenario, the staff disperses. If they are engaged at at all, they will hunt & gather files to reduce or delete. They have no information about the size, location, or ownership of files. They probably have no idea how to make an impact here. In my world, a couple people check a few files and (hopefully) find a few quick hits to reduce disk consumption.

This is a real world scenario. Just Sayin’.

ps. Get your free disk usage widget here or here. The former is cool, the latter is too.